Video: Limiting adjustments by clipping

An adjustment layer affects the content of all layers beneath it. If you're building a file with lots of layers, sometimes you don't want to have your adjustment layer affect all the layers. Well, here's how to quickly limit an adjustment to just the layers you want it to affect by clipping one layer to another. In Photoshop CS4, clipping has become a one step easy operation, thanks to the addition of a new Clipping button in the Adjustments panel. I am going to be using a Brightness/ Contrast adjustment layer here, but this technique works with all adjustment layers.

Photoshop has become an indispensible tool for photographers, designers, and all other creative professionals, as well as students. Photoshop CS4 Essential Training teaches a broad spectrum of core skills that are common to many creative fields: working with layers and selections; adjusting, manipulating, and retouching photos; painting; adding text; automating; preparing files for output; and more. Instructor Jan Kabili demonstrates established techniques as well as those made possible by some of the new features unique to Photoshop CS4. This course is indispensable to those who are new to the application, just learning this version, or expanding their skills. Example files accompany the course.

Limiting adjustments by clipping

An adjustment layer affects the content of all layers beneath it.If you're building a file with lots of layers, sometimes you don't want to haveyour adjustment layer affect all the layers.Well, here's how to quickly limit an adjustment to just the layers you want itto affect by clipping one layer to another.In Photoshop CS4, clipping has become a one step easy operation,thanks to the addition of a new Clipping button in the Adjustments panel.I am going to be using a Brightness/ Contrast adjustment layer here, but thistechnique works with all adjustment layers.

You can see in the Layers panel that this file has two layers.On the top layer are these houses, and if I make that layer temporarilyinvisible by clicking the Eye icon, you will see that behind it is a photo ofsome mountains, and I just use that for the gray sky behind.What I want to do is brighten up the buildings on the houses layer, but notbrighten up the sky on the layer below.I am going to add a Brightness/ Contrast adjustment layer from the Adjustmentspanel by clicking the Brightness/Contrast icon.

You can see the new Brightness/Contrast adjustment layer down here in the Layerspanel and the controls for that adjustment here in the Adjustments panel.It's really pretty simple.If you drag the Brightness slider to the right, it increases the brightnessof the entire image.And if you drag the Contrast slider to the right, you increase the contrastbetween the light areas and the dark areas.By the way, if you have been using Photoshop for a long time, you may have heardnot to use the Brightness/Contrast adjustment.That was true in the past, when this particular adjustment often clipped thehighlights and the shadow areas of images.

But that was fixed in the last version of Photoshop, Photoshop CS3.So it's fine to use the Brightness/ Contrast adjustment in Photoshop CS4 too.So now my adjustment is affecting not only what's on the houses layer, but alsowhat's on the sky layer below, and I really don't want to brighten the sky.All I have to do is make sure that my Brightness/Contrast adjustment layer isselected here in the Layers panel and then go to the bottom of the Adjustment paneland click this icon, the one that looks like a black and white circle, andthat clips the Adjustment layer to the houses layer below, preventing it fromreaching down to the sky layer at the bottom of the layers stack.

You can see that the adjustment layer is clipped to the layer below it becauseit is indented and it now has this down-facing arrow on it.I could add more adjustment layers on top of this one and clip them to oneanother just the same way.If I want to unclip the adjustment layer, I just make sure it's selected andI click the Clipping icon one more time.You may remember from previous versions of Photoshop that to make this happen,you had to move your mouse over the border between the adjustment layer andthe layer below, hold down the Option key on a Mac or the Alt key on a PC, and then click.

You can still do it that way if you like, but having this new Clipping buttonright here makes this a really easy one-click operation.

Q: How can artwork be transferred from Photoshop CS4 to Illustrator CS4 without the background?

A: Save the image in Photoshop’s native PSD format. The background in Photoshop must be transparent, meaning there should be no background layer. (To remove a background layer, move your artwork to a separate layer by selecting and copying the content, minus the background, to a new layer, and then delete the background layer. A checkboard pattern behind your image indicates transparent pixels.)

Q: A client has asked for artwork to be delivered as JPEGs or BMP files in 16-bit format. In Photoshop CS4, there does not appear to be an option to save an image as a 16-bit JPEG. Is there a way to save JPEG files as 16-bit in Photoshop?

A: Unfortunately, JPEGs cannot be saved in 16 bit. JPEGs, by nature, are 8-bit. So if you open a high-bit image into Photoshop CS4, you will see no option in any of the save dialog boxes to save the file as a JPEG. You would first have to convert the image to 8 bit (by choosing Image > Mode > 8 bits/channel) and then save it as an 8-bit JPEG. If you open a high-bit image into Photoshop CS5, you will see the option to save it as a JPEG in the Save, Save As, and Save for Web dialog boxes. But the JPEG will not be saved as 16-bit. Instead, Photoshop will downsample it to 8-bit for you before saving it as JPEG.

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